BAGALKOT, MANDYA: Two women, who had undergone illegal abortions, have died while another is recovering after falling ill, in separate cases in the state.
Sonali (33), a resident of Kolhapur in Maharashtra, who underwent a scan at Miraj, died while returning home after undergoing an abortion at an illegal hospital in Mahalingapur in Rabkavi-Banahatti taluk of Bagalkot district on Tuesday. The incident came to light when the Miraj police were checking vehicles.
The Maharashtra police have arrested five people in this connection, including Kavitha Badannavar who was running the illegal hospital. A case has been registered at the Sangli police station.
Sonali earlier had borne two girl children and when she found out that the third child too was a girl baby, she opted to illegally abort the four-month-old foetus. She died in the car while returning due to excessive bleeding.
Bagalkot Police Superintendent Amarnath Reddy told media persons on Wednesday that Sonali had been referred to Kavita Badannavar by one Maruti Karwad and Rs 40,000 was fixed for the illegal abortion. Kavitha was earlier working as an attendant at a private hospital in Belagavi. Sonali came to Mahalingapur on May 27 and Kavitha sent her home the next day itself and she died enroute.
The SP said Maruti Karwad of Miraj and Vijay Gawali, a relative of Sonali, were among those arrested. No medical equipment was found at Kavitha’s house, he said and added that the 2022 case against her is coming up in court on July 27.
Public TV had reported about Kavitha Badannavar’s illegal hospital in August 2022 following which health officials from Mudhol taluk had conducted a raid and registered a case. Some time later, she had started conducting illegal abortions at her house itself.
At Pandavapura in Mandya district, one woman who had undergone abortion died while another was seriously ill. The latter, however, is now recovering.
The two women from KR Nagar had gone to Pandavapura for the abortion and the medical attendant who conducted the procedure had got them admitted to the taluk hospital in Pandavapura. When the women’s health condition deteriorated, they were shifted to a private hospital in Mysuru.
While one of the women died, the other is recovering. It is said that the women were not given proper medical attention, leading to the incident.